In many passenger transport vehicles, such as air planes or cars, high intensity discharge lamps (HID lamps) are commonly in use for exterior lighting purposes. Exemplary high intensity discharge lamps are xenon lamps. While high intensity discharge lamps have high illumination capacities, they are not very energy efficient.
Many passenger transport vehicles have very long life cycles, at least when compared to the life cycles of existing high intensity discharge lamps. Also, changes to the standardization of components for such passenger transport vehicles, such as changes to the standardized power supply system for the exterior lighting of an air plane, tend to be lengthy and cumbersome. As a consequence, much of the technology used in passenger transport vehicles is frozen for long periods of time, either due to the presence of the remaining components in a passenger transport vehicle when replacing certain components or due to industry standards that are constant for long times.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a light unit that is more energy efficient and that can be used in passenger transport vehicles without changing their power supply systems. Further, it would be beneficial to provide a method of operating such light units. Additionally, it would be beneficial to provide a method of replacing existing high intensity discharge lamps with such light units while keeping the wiring of the power supply systems.